Abstract

We are often told by commentators that there are no longer any great French writersand that novelists are now incapable of writing about the society in which theylive. Or else we are told that the quality of writers’ work suå ers because they arepreoccupied with self-aggrandisement. Jean-Philippe Domecq wrote:Sollers, a writer entirely of the present moment, of whatever’ s in theair and of the ego, is the very image of the usurpation that has oftenpunctuated literature and that doesn’ t last, fortunately. He has anotoriety and a power that are aberrant. His books don’ t talk to usabout today’s conditions but about his feats. His style is a patchworkof pre-itemised literary eå ects, and his behaviour symptomatic of onewho has all the more power for having less authority.